Sunday, January 13, 2013

cuppy cakes, minute to win it games, and secret santa

A little late posting, but I'm trying to catch up with all the pics I took over break.

Our New Years celebration has become a yearly tradition with family friends of ours.

We've known them since their boys were little and have been celebrating New Years Eve with them for years!

Look at the sweet cupcakes Ms. Sue made for us! The green and yellow baby flowers and handprints were in honor or Baby BB and the white cupcakes with mustaches were in honor of Ilene and Ryan's marriage. Looooove 'em! Aren't they so sweet??

We always play Minute to Win it games all the way through the night.

This year, we had a competition between the two families...however, our family seems to be getting larger each New Years, so we might have to start doing three way competitions;)

Each year, we have a kid pic and a parents pic...one day i want to dig out the old pics and put them side by side so we can see how we've all changed, grown, and added to the picture;)

Oh! and here's a pic with Ryan...it seemed that every other guy here was named Ryan. In between my hubby and I is another Ryan:) He is now a United States Marine protecting and fighting for our country. I have a soft spot in my heart for the military, since I grew up a military brat, and I couldn't be prouder that this Ryan is a marine now too!

and of course, we made a toast and prayed over the New Year!

We're very thankful for our dear family friends, and it's always something for my Ryan and I to look forward to when we get to see them! My Ryan has been a part of this celebration for the past few years, so it's really been a blast that he knows our close family friends and loves celebrating with us as well.

And lastly, on New Years Eve, my family has a Secret Santa gift exchange. A day or so before New Years Eve, we draw names for our gift exchange. When we get home from the Cerrillos, usually minutes before the ball in NYC drops, we hurry and grab our gifts, get more sparkling cider poured, and then countdown with the people in New York. Once the ball drops, we take our pics, both kissy and non kissy, take our cider drinking pics, and then do our gift exchange.

and each year, we seem to have one more person to do add into the Secret Santa. It's so fun sharing these life long family traditions with our spouses!

New Years Day, we puttered around the house as ilene and Ryan packed up their stuff, had brunch with us, and took off to their second honeymoon. We stocked them up with snacks and drinks for the road, raided ilene's closet for the stuff she wasn't moving out with, and sat on her bed and watched her run around the house, gathering all her stuff to pack. (when you elope, you don't pre pack all your stuff before you! So she did her packing this morning.)

We always take New Years Day just to chill around the house...which nowadays, I can't get enough of! Here are our final sister and boys pics before we said goodbye.

and here's the very last day that the Christmas tree counts. New Years Day.

I love our tree and all the memories it holds...we each have an ornament from each year growing up.